Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses

In fiction, character and plot are inseparable elements of craft. Without characters there can be no action or plot. In this short course you will learn how to create characters that can drive a narrative forward and deepen its themes.

Explore Expressionism as it developed in different locations and within different movement, with a focus on Kandinsky as its key example, considering issues such as artistic influences and stylistic developments.

During the 1940s Hitchcock found himself working with a range of Hollywood studios and producers on projects suited to his particular storytelling interests, with perhaps the two most successful and striking of these being the focus of this course. We will explore their production, structure and critical reception, while also noting significant differences between the two in terms of their tone.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Learn how to turn real-life experiences into gripping fiction in this fun short course for fiction-writing beginners and experienced writers. Develop your writing skills and explore techniques for transforming personal stories into strong narratives.

Explore the Neo-classical movement, focusing on David as its key example, considering issues such as politics and social change, biography, artistic and theoretic influences, notably that of Winckelmann.

Indigenous Australian art has, in recent years, been increasingly exhibited and discussed in Britain. Yet little is known about the history and development of this art movement and the oeuvres of the artists responsible for its creation. This introductory course will provide a history of how Indigenous Australian artists have changed and challenged the course of national and international art fields in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Explore Realism in the nineteenth century, focusing on Manet as its key example, considering such issues as social and political change, formal and subject developments, theoretic interests and artistic influences.

Famously unsuccessful in his own lifetime, Vincent van Gogh developed his unique style be engaging with his contemporaries, old masters and Japanese art. Discover van Gogh’s influences and legacy in this one-day course.

Once upon a time there was a City Lit workshop all about writing fairytales. The quest: to inspire writers to pen stories of love, fear, forests, revenge, dragons, witches, kings, queens, frogs and magic.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

This study day will examine the question of the association of women with magic and witchcraft.

Film Noir was the term coined by French critics to describe a distinctive style in American cinema during the decade after the war. In the transitional 1950s, genres that had been Hollywood staples began to change, evolve, or fade away. Film Noir evolved because it was too vital, too useful, and just too enjoyable to fade away. Just as John Huston’s Maltese Falcon (1941) kick-started film noir in the forties, his Asphalt Jungle (1950) introduced a darker fifties’ noir. Or did noir begin and end with Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) and Touch of Evil (1958)? ((See related courses on Fifties Melodrama and Musicals and 50 Films From the ‘50s: Hollywood’s Last Stand).

200 years after one of history’s most famous puzzles was deciphered, tour around the British Museum’s new Decipherment exhibition and learn how the mystery of Hieroglyphs was unravelled with the Rosetta Stone, with other archaeological clues, and with a bit of genius.

Increasingly publishers are looking for authors with an impressive online presence, as well as a sparkling manuscript. On this practical and interactive course, you'll learn how to start and grow your author brand, gain a following and build a readership.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.